The Magnificent Balthier's Magical Act of Flight
by Fat Bandit
Summary: Balthier keeps trying to run away, and Vaan keeps trying to bring him back.


The Magnificent Balthier and his Magical Art of Disappearance by Fat Bandit.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to Square-Enix.

A/N: Post FF12 (discounts Revenant Wings)

I.

Vaan is all pale desert sand hair, dusky brown skin, and sky blue eyes. Balthier, in his more poetic moments, thinks that even Vaan's voice is like the desert: its stuck between boy and man, and it comes out sounding harsh like the Westersand sandstorms. Vaan is everything beautiful about childhood and everything ugly about poverty and war, but Balthier sees neither of these. What Balthier sees is the desert at sunrise, when everything is only just beginning to glow and light up, when the sun is scorching hot and the winds are blowing sand everywhere, everywhere, covering and drowning and choking Balthier who wants nothing more than to run away and escape again to the clouds of his wide, open sky. Freedom, he thinks, is Strahl.

So he leaves.

He sheds his ties to the ground on the burning wreck of the Bahamut.

Fran finds him in a shady bar in Nalbina two months later. He is nursing a drink and his shoulders are drooped down with the weight of history bearing down on him. No matter how far he runs, no matter how fast or how desperately, he can never seem to get away.

Fran slaps him so hard across the face that he is bruised for a week. "Idiot Humes should not travel by themselves lest they want to be killed by their own folly," she says.

"That does rather seem to be the case," Balthier agrees cautiously. Graciously, he ignores her misty eyes. He is man enough to admit that his eyes may have been vaguely cloudy as well once upon a time, back when he passed on the unconscious body of his first friend to the hesitant hands of the Viera.

Five months, and Balthier honestly does not know how he ever lived without her.

Their relationship is easy to settle into again. Fran does not ask questions. She does not ask why he is doing this, why he is prone to disappear in the middle of the night to meet up with shady old acquaintances. He does not return until the sun is rising, when he is worn tired from all of the secrets and lying. She never stops him or holds him back. But she also never loses that suspicious look.

Finally, he starts talking about Rabanastre, starts making plans and finding the right date, and Fran hesitates.

"Balthier," she asks, "What are you planning on doing?"

She already knows, and he already knows that she knows, and this skirting around the fact that Balthier is crossing the line between "sky-pirate dastardly" and "evil criminal" is going to make him insane.

He settles for the half-truth.

"What I am planning, my dear Fran, is on how to stay dead. It's a lot more complicated than one would think it should be."

Fran doesn't say anything, for which Balthier is greatly thankful for. At least, he knows, there is one person in this world that would follow him on his path to hell.

II.

_Sixteen was far too young for a face like that. Balthier wanted make Vaan smile, to hold him and comfort him, to kiss him- but no. Sixteen was far too young for that as well._

"_You were younger," Fran said._

_She knows too much about him._

III.

This is where he belongs, he thinks. He is a leading man, a man for adventure and excitement, but games of royalty and gods are those for heroes. Balthier is a sky pirate.

Albeit, a sky pirate with far lesser morals than he was before. Possibly even a villain.

It would be thrilling, Balthier thinks, if the first heist wasn't to steal treasures from Dalmasca's own lovely princess, the Lady Ashe.

"Ahhh, this does bring back memories, doesn't it, dear Fran?" he quietly calls out as they sneak past the palace guards.

The security seems significantly more effective this time round without a certain blond idiot shouting out "Hey, Buckethead!" every five minutes and attracting the attention of the entire palace army but, Balthier thinks, he always did love the rush of a challenge.

"Yes," Fran says. She is out scouting a little bit ahead, but Balthier has been with Fran long enough to see the small mocking smile on her face without looking. "I believe this is where we failed to steal the Dusk Shard."

"Ouch, Fran. Always playing the critic."

"No. If I were, I would mention our unexpected detour through the sewers."

"Now that's hardly fair at all."

"It is only the truth which I say."

"The truth!" he whispers. He throws his hands in the air and shakes his head as they pass through new doorway revealed by the sunstone. "Perhaps, if it were to quite conveniently miss some significant key points. The gods' simply weren't smiling on us that day." It is true that they could have planned it out much better, but honestly. Balthier has some wide connections, but even they don't stretch far enough to include renegade insurgents plotting a coup. "And," Balthier adds, "if I do say, Vaan has always been rather _feisty_. I doubt anyone could have foreseen him."

Vaan is like a terrible force that does whatever it desires without ever thinking of the consequences, always rushing head-first into things that are far too grand and complex for your average street boy. If anyone is able to guess boy would be up to next, Balthier is certainly not one for the job.

Although, Balthier himself isn't really all the predictable. Seeing as he's robbing a palace when he's supposed to be dead.

He doesn't really have a choice. He has to do this, at least for now. But perhaps it is a little too soon to risk running into any familiar old faces.

"Balthier." Something must have shown on his face because Fran suddenly sounds concerned.

"No worries, my girl," Balthier says with a smile, "In and out, and nobody will ever know we were ever here."

"Perhaps. But I do not think I would mind if some people were to find out."

But he rather _would_, and that was the problem, wasn't it?

"We're _sky pirates_- we aren't supposed to get caught. Honestly, Fran, we've been doing this for years. One would think you should know this by now."

"There is a difference," Fran says, and she's turning back now to look him in the eyes so that it will only be more painful, "between being a sky pirate and a traitor." Even from this distance, Balthier can tell her eyes are fierce in disapproval.

Fuck, he thinks.

His heart thumps with the knowledge that she _knows_.

"Balthier, which one are you?"

Trust Fran to come up with all of the difficult questions that Balthier himself doesn't even know the answer to.

IV.

_You were younger, Fran's whisper echoed in his mind, and suddenly, he could not help this anymore. He leaned down carefully over Vaan's sleeping from, making barely a rustle despite the loud and erratic thumping of his heart._

_It felt almost voyeuristic, being able to look at Vaan's tan and unguarded face free of stress and worry._

_He took one kiss, and then another. Vaan's lips were soft and warm; chapped. He tasted salty._

_Balthier could almost imagine the boy under him moving, gasping into his breath and squirming under Balthier's body. Twining his fingers into Balthier's hair while making needy, desperate noises deep in the back of his throat that Balthier would swallow._

_But Vaan did not do any of this, still as a dead and frozen statue._

_With a sigh, Balthier stood up and then tossed a phoenix down towards his unconscious partner._

"_Wha-?" Vaan slurred, sitting up. He looked around in a dazed confusion until he saw the body of the Behemoth lying face down several feet away. He brought one of his hands up to the back of his head in a sheepish gesture._

"_Ah, thanks," he said. He's didn't look at Balthier's face, but to a couple of inches to left. His face tinged pink._

_The look was altogether too charming._

"_It's no problem, Vaan," Balthier said, smirking. He felt uncomfortable and had difficulty keeping his eyes from slipping back to the boy's lips- from touching his own, to get rid of the tingling. "Just try to stay conscious for more than half the fight next time and maybe I'll call it even."_

_Vaan's gaze instantly snapped to his face and his expression grew indignant even he blushed harder._

"_You were supposed to back me up, anyways! And I was the one doing all the work, you were just standing in back, probably checking your _nails_ or something. Or, who knows, polishing your stupid, fancy_ _little guns like you do all day at camp because you were clearly not helpful at all-"_

"_My _guns_," Balthier said, looking down at Vaan in amusement, "are anything but little. I would show you, but you aren't quite old enough yet, boy, and it's just not classy going to jail for something like that."_

_Vaan sputtered on the floor after Balthier as he walked away to find Fran. Clearly, Balthier should not be left alone with Vaan any longer, this was turning far too dangerous a game to play._

V.

Every minute in Rabanstre makes Balthier's heart beat faster. The palace is large, the chances of getting caught are infinitesimal, but still Balthier cannot help but think what if, what if-

What if they turn the corner and run into the Lady Ashe herself.

He would think that the gods are not smiling for them today, either, except he knows better now than to rely on the gods.

The past months have treated Ashe well. She looks absolutely beautiful in a flowing white dress overlaid with flowery lace. A tiara graces her head gently. The lines on her face seem somehow softer.

Balthier thinks, this isn't their Ashe. This isn't their young princess, whose impatience makes her fierce; whose vengeance makes her rash and bold and dangerous. This isn't Ashe, who was as sharp as glass and just as fragile. This is Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca.

But then he sees her face, pale and shaken with shock.

Ashe cries out their names softy like words spoken in a cathedral; hushed and quiet with tones of longing and disbelief.

No. He is not worthy of this.

It takes him a while to recover. When he does, he sees Fran with her rod out, standing over the sleeping body of their princess.

"It will not last long. We must hurry." She looks at his face expectantly and leaves the rest unspoken.

"We have plunder to pilfer," he says, when he is certain his voice will come out strong and steady. "We aren't leaving without it."

It's still too soon.

Fran nods in understanding.

VI.

_It happened like this:_

_He tracked down the merchant on a whim. It's not like he was actually expecting find anything of worth here, not in the grimy land of Old Archades where vendors sold mixtures of urine and cockatrice feathers to pass off as phoenix downs._

_The vendor led him through a busy section of the street. Archades, for all that it was known for its richness and beauty, had nothing to show for it here. Larsa did his best, but it takes too much time; these people would probably never see the fruit of his actions._

_Little street children ran up to them, unapologetic smiles on their faces as they played._

_One of them bumped into him, and he felt a fleetingly light pressure on one of his back pockets. Balthier hid his smile behind an expression of severe distaste; now was the time for business, and while Balthier might have turned around and given the boy a lesson on how to properly be a scoundrel, he was no longer Balthier._

_He was now a rich Archadian gentleman with too much money on his hands and a curious taste in the occult._

"_This way, young sir!" his merchant called out to him as he disappeared through a dark alley._

_Balthier followed._

_The merchant took him deep underground near the Sochen Cave Palace, and Balthier felt uneasy. The walls here were too dark, too full of secrets and murky mysterious pasts. The Sochen Cave Palace, Balthier remembered, was not a place he found pleasant._

_And certainly, it was no place for casual business propositions._

_He knew it was a trap when the merchant's head scarf slipped and he saw the familiar features of Archades' own infamous scoundrel, the information master who had apparently just sold Balthier's life for some spare gil. Those were Bangaa footprints, and the gentleman Balthier was pretending to be did not carry around guns or knives._

"_Jules," he said, somewhat surprised. They had been friends, once upon a time. But Ffamran was dead now and Balthier had already restarted his life; Jules knew that, and the ties that bonded them had been severed long ago. "I thought you always said knowledge was a more worthwhile investment than currency. Your eagerness to see me dead is somewhat shocking."_

_It was honestly a little bit scary when Jules did not smile, but instead looked deeply regretful and sad._

"_Balthier," he said quietly, "I did not wish for this to happen, but Ba'Gamman is no easy bargainer."_

_He heard footsteps approaching and dark, bulky shadows emerged from the hidden entrance to Sochen._

_There was no way out, and Jules had a gun to his heart._

_Balthier wanted to ask him how he could do this, how Jules could kill someone he once told he thought of as a brother. But he knew the answer: Jules was like him. They both wanted the sky, even if it meant abandoning the people down below._

_Instead, he asked, "How did you know I was alive?"_

"_Oh, Ffamran," Jules said with a rueful smile, "I have heard of your death enough times to have learned not to believe it."_

_The Bangaa do not understand mercy. When the Bangaa offered him a deal, he took it. Sky-pirate Balthier had overstayed his welcome, and born from his ashes is a new Balthier, a betrayer of old friends and something worse than a thief._

_But had Cidolfus had taught him well, and he knows better than anyone how to survive_

VII.

They exit Rabanastre with relics of the Dynast King and Balthier, with a heavy heart.

Fran, however, looks both sympathetic and unregretful, and he can't help but wonder if she knew this would happen.

Balthier remembers hearing that once upon a long time ago, Viera were well-known soothsayers.

He does not doubt it. Fran always seems to know everything.

"These are just stones," Fran says, looking at their bounty.

"Old stones. Ancient ones."

"What is their purpose?" she asks, sensing that there is something greater going on here.

Balthier laughs despite himself. "They look very mysterious, don't you think?"

VIII.

_The Bangaa had told him, "You will work for us."_

_And Balthier said, "You don't leave me with much of a choice."_

_Ba'Gamman laughed. "You would be dead either way. At least this way you are dead and useful to us."_

"_And what if I were to tell everyone first?"_

_Ba'Gamman laughed again. "We would kill you!"_

_And that settled it_.

IX.

He's expecting Vaan to find him eventually, but he wasn't expecting him to come so soon. One day Vaan just shows up out of what seems to be thin air, and he stands there staring at as Balthier tunes up his ship.

When Balthier sees him, he feels himself jump and his eyes go wide. His heart constricts with anxiety, a rush of longing, a rush of pain.

When Vaan runs up to him, he doesn't punch him in the face, doesn't accuse him of being a liar and a thief and a traitor.

He hugs him.

Balthier freezes, unable to understand what is happening.

"I found you," Vaan says, and his words sound desperate and unbelieving. "I've finally found you. They all thought you were dead. I didn't believe it. The ship was gone and I _couldn't_ believe it."

"It was my ship," Balthier whispers back. For whatever reason, he feels like he has to defend that action.

"I know." Vaan clutches at Balthier as he burrows his face deeper into Balthier's neck. Balthier feels his shirt collar becoming damp as Vaan's breathe hitches, and he really, really does not want to think about that. "I know it was," he says again.

He wasn't expecting Vaan to act this way. It seems almost like a dream.

And because of that, Balthier begins to raise his arms and wrap them around this boy he loves until Vaan opens his mouth again to murmur. "I can't believe I had to hear about it from _Ashe_," he says, and Balthier's heart stops.

Balthier abruptly pushes him away and takes several steps back. "What did she tell you?" he asks. His voice is razors and his windpipe torn; he almost can't breathe with the way it feels like all of the air is being sucked out of his lungs.

"How is Fran?" Vaan asks weakly, but Balthier cannot be distracted.

"Vaan. What did she tell you?"

"She said that you were stealing things. From the palace. And you guys attacked her when she saw you." He takes another breath and says quickly, "But you couldn't have, right? You wouldn't do that! We're your friends! You wouldn't do that to us."

Balthier sees Fran out of the corner of his eyes. She's standing far off on the top of a nearby building, but he doesn't doubt for a second that she can't hear everything they say. Suddenly, he feels a burst of anger rise up within him.

"Sky pirates don't have friends," he bites out harshly."You're better off considering us dead. Tell _that_ to the Lady Ashe."

"Why are you working with the Bangaa?" Vaan yells out, finally. His eyes glow fiercely with strong emotions Balthier doesn't want to understand; the light catches the dampness that still lingers around his eyes and they shine with a ferocity that is blinding. "Yeah, I know all about that, Balthier. Had to hear that one from a guy whose brother is a bartender. Anything else you're hiding? Maybe a secret diabolical plan to take over the world? Planning on becoming the next Vayne?"

"Shut up, Vaan!" He grabs Vaan's wrists and pushes him back again the wall, but Vaan breaks away easily and aims a punch towards his face.

"What the hell Balthier, I thought we were friends! I thought I could trust you!" Vaan cries. It's almost pleading. Vaan doesn't stop trying to punch him, only gets more frustrated as Balthier consistently blocks all his attacks. There's something desperate in his eyes that makes Balthier want to –to do _something_.

"Vaan, I am telling you to _shut up_."

"Yeah? Well, you're gonna have to make me!"

Something ugly flares up in Balthier and, without thinking, he takes out his Antares and shoots twice.

Vaan's mouth makes a soft sound of pain and fright, his eyes widen in disbelief –accusing eyes, blue-rimmed and frozen with betrayal- and then he drops to the ground, instantly unconscious.

Balthier stares at the gun in his hand for three seconds, almost in shock. Then his face twists up in revulsion and he throws a hand over his eyes and tilts his face up towards the dark sky. But he doesn't, doesn't, drop the gun.

"Stop playing games with me, Fran," he says curtly once she jumps down to greet him. "The next time you do something like this, I'm leaving."

Fran gives him a look of haughty superiority and compassion."I will allow you your games of run and chase," she says.

"Good."

"But when the past comes gaining on you, I will not stand in its way."

Balthier glares.

He throws a high potion on the ground near Vaan and all but runs away.

X.

_Ffamran mied Bunansa once loved his father, before he realized that all his father could ever love was the Nethecite._

_Now, Balthier hates his father more anyone else. When he watched his father die, he felt nothing._

_But Ffamran was inside of him thinking, Not again._

_He had already watched his father leave him once, when he changed before his eyes into a puppet of the gods._

_Ffamran couldn't take it. He broke- shattered into a million splintered and jagged pieces impossible to pick up and make whole._

_But Balthier -he knew better. He was stronger. Balthier looked up at the beautiful, fading dust of his father and refused to mourn a man who was already dead._

_Balthier was strong._

_Strong enough to not look back when he lets go off all his earthly ties; strong enough to start over again and again and again, as many times as it took to become the person he wanted to be._

_All Balthier wanted was to be free._

XI.

Balthier goes away for a week, and this time Fran doesn't follow.

He spends his time in the taverns of every major city he can think of, comparing the quality of drinks and talking to the locals about news of the young king who had taken over control of Archades. Balthier always keeps his mouth shut during these conversations, at turns either amused or annoyed.

He's about to call quits when a group of hunters invite him to join them for a round. Five hours later, he finds himself asking to join in on their hunt.

They're in the Deadland of Nabudis, and Balthier feels a thrill at doing something reckless and completely pointless.

The hunt turns out to be a disaster. They find their mark, and Balthier's Volcano lights up the darkness in bright sparks that seems to bounce fight off the monster. He runs, jumps, attacks, retreats, and casts healing spells as needed; his heart races and thrums with adrenaline.

It's the most fun Balthier has had since- well, it's the most fun Balthier has had in a really, really long time.

"Are you done?" Fran asks when he comes back.

Balthier crooks a grin and laughs.

"Yes," he says, "I'm done."

"What are we going to do now?" Fran takes in his strange new demeanor and raises an eyebrow.

Balthier raises an eyebrow of his own and tosses her his loot before he starts walking away.

"Ah, now, my dear girl, we are going to run away."

"Oh? And just who is it that we are to run from? Our friends, or our enemies?" Fran stays standing near the inn and crosses her arms.

"Ah, that's a good question!" Balthier calls back towards her. "Let's go hunting."

It goes like this for awhile, all chasing hunts and drinking at taverns and general treasure hunting. The pressure and tension between Fran and Balthier, which never completely disappeared after she found him at that tavern what seems like way back when, turns into a low thrum that's easy to ignore.

Balthier still wakes up sometimes, in the middle of the night, thinking about bodies lying on the floor and wide, surprised blue eyes that look at him with shock and disbelief. This is harder to ignore, but Balthier manages.

The Antares stays at the bottom of his dresser as Balthier can no longer stand the smell of gunpowder without feeling nauseous.

XII.

_Balthier was about to step onto the airship when he heard someone yelling. He turned around and felt like someone was choking him when he saw Jules running towards him waving his arms._

"_Ffamran!" Jules cried out. "Wait, wait!"_

_Jules finally reached the boarding platform and tackled Balthier in a hug._

"_What are you doing here?" Balthier said into Jules' hair._

"_What am I doing here? Do you seriously have to ask that? Were you planning on leaving just like that?"_

_Balthier pulled away from Jules, who immediately let him go. Jules distractedly tugged at his hair in an awkward gesture, his eyes leaving Balthier's face for an instant as he blushed._

"_I mean," Jules said quickly, "Are you really leaving, Ffamran?"_

"_It's Balthier now, actually."_

"_I see."_

_Balthier looked at Jules face and something in his heart clenched at his friend's almost closed-off expression._

"_I guess this is goodbye, then," Jules said. His voice was strained with something Balthier understood and wished he didn't._

_Ffamran stepped out towards Jules and gripped him gently on the back of the neck as he kissed him. Ffamran whispered, "I am sorry," into Jules ears with his eyes shut so he wouldn't start crying._

_But it was Balthier who opened his eyes again and rode away on the Strahl._

XIII.

Balthier has a dream.

He's falling at the edge of a precipice, slipping, slipping, and he's dragging Vaan down with him.

"Let me go!" he yells at Vaan. He can feel the boy's arm shaking from strain.

"No!" Vaan yells back, "Never!"

And then, suddenly, Vaan is on the ground, his eyes wide and frozen in shock.

Fran walks by and glances at Vaan. She looks at Balthier, who is staring at his own hands, red red red, and she touches one palm so the blood goes away. She says, "You were younger."

Vaan reaches up and pulls Balthier down for a hug. It's tight and almost painful.

It's so tight that Balthier is choking, dying, and somehow happy.

When Balthier wakes up in an empty dark room, throws the pillow over his head and groans in frustration.

"What the _fuck_," he says, shuddering.

"Are you alright?" Fran ask as he walks into the ship's cabin.

"Mpfh," Balthier says. Fran raises one delicate eyebrow and Balthier goes onto explain, "Weird dreams. Strange. I don't even know."

"Sometimes dreams have little meaning in real life."

"I know. I wasn't taking it seriously. I was just- confused."

Fran laughs. "Humes are always confused."

XIV.

He's not even expecting him this time.

Balthier's heart almost stops when he sees the boy running towards them, a great gleaming sword in hand as he strikes past Balthier to land a hard blow on the monster that was about to claw at Balthier's torn armor. ("Balthier!" he distantly hears Fran yell, and her voice is shrill in way that he has never heard before).

For all the power behind Vaan's attack, the monster seems to feel nothing.

"Get back!" Vaan shouts back at him, and this is really not how this was supposed to go.

This was supposed to be a regular hunt, a quick kill monster and collect cash sort of thing, but apparently Balthier is an idiot because his life can never be that easy. Instead he gets a monster that _doesn't die_, a creature so powerful and intimidating that Balthier hasn't felt this scared since he was a boy and he first realized that his father was insane.

Vaan hacks at the creature, his arm swinging wide and true with a powerful grace that Balthier has never seen in him before, and for short instant Balthier is once again struck in awe of this boy who is so beautiful and strong and who had, in a moment that Balthier regrets missing, also grown up and become a man.

But it's a fleeting thought that disappears when he realizes that they are all going to die. Vaan's attacks are useless. The monster, again, feels nothing. And Vaan can only keep on the offensive for so long.

Balthier runs to his side.

"What the hell are you doing?" Vaan screams. "Back off! Get the fuck out of here!"

Vaan barely manages to get his sword up in time to block the sweep of sharp claws. Balthier sees blood running down his hands.

Balthier doesn't know what to say, doesn't know how to defend his actions to someone he _shot_ only a few weeks back, so he says nothing. But he cannot, in a way that he cannot stop breathing, let this boy die alone.

"Fuck," Vaan's voice calls out, harsh and gritty, "fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Vaan's sword never stops swinging. Except when it does, and then Balthier is there with his Volcano to do the best he can do, for the people he loves most.

Balthier hears the _thawk thawk_ of Fran's relentless arrows, he hears the devil roaring at him in the form of this angry creature, he hears Vaan's breath come quicker and quicker in faltering gasps; he hears, so loudly in his ears, the sound of his own heartbeat thumping erratically in his chest, beats that sound like "_don't stop_" and "_he can't die_."

And then he hears, over all of this, the sound of a bruised and bleeding Vaan picking himself off the ground.

"Get _back_, Balthier," Vaan says. His voice is exhausted and weak, but his eyes- his eyes are burning. "I'll get us out of here. I'm going to save you, even if you don't want to be saved. And I'm going to do it, even if it's the last thing I'll ever do."

And it almost is, but true to his words, he saves them.

XV.

"Vaan, you have to stop following me." Balthier says in exasperation.

"Hey, you remember that one time I saved you? That was cool."

"No. Shut up, Vaan."

"I remember," Fran says, and Balthier can't believe the amount of betrayal coming from his own partner.

"Yeah," Vaan says, and god, he hasn't even lost that sheepish look in his face he gets whenever he talks to Fran. Balthier is surprised at how much Vaan can change while still staying the same.

"So I noticed," Vaan continues, "you aren't using your guns anymore, Balthier? It probably would have been better against a monster like that." Balthier is determined not to look him in the face, but damn if there isn't something smug and hopeful in his voice that is painful to hear.

"No, my gun is in need of repair. Hand bombs are more convenient for now."

"Oh. So all your guns broken?"

"Yes."

"_All_ of them?"

"_Yes_."

"That's-" Vaan begins, and Balthier makes the mistake of glancing back and catching a glimpse of a brilliant smile, "That's actually really sweet of you."

"Oh for the love of- Fran, please."

"No, we are in the middle of a forest."

"A couple of trees never hurt anyone."

"It would be rude to leave him here."

"Hey!" Vaan yells indignantly, "I saved you guys, remember?"

"I remember," Fran says. She turns her head to look back at Vaan and the boy immediately goes quiet, a deep red bush spreading across his cheeks as he ducks his head down. Fran see this, and the jealous look Balthier shoots her almost unconsciously, and she laughs.

Traitor.

It takes awhile to get back to town and they spend the time in relative silence, which Balthier does his best to encourage despite all of Vaan's eager attempts at conversation.

When they reach the gates, Vaan grabs onto Balthier's wrist. Balthier tries to tug his hand away but Vaan tightens his grip to the point where it begins to hurt and Balthier decides to play along rather than cause a scene.

He watches Fran disappear into the crowd with desperation.

A breathe tickles his ear. Vaan stands directly behind him. and all to close for comfort. "You _are_ working with the Bangaa, aren't you?" he whispers.

"Whatever I do is none of your business," Balthier says back, curtly.

"Okay. But you know, I've already decided. I'm gonna to trust you."

"Good for you. That's a fine attitude for any young sky-pirate." Vaan's grip tightens even more and Balthier tries very hard not to wince.

"Because I know," Vaan continues, "that you're one of the good guys."

"You know nothing, brat." A gunshot, and wide wide eyes. Balthier is far from good.

"That's not true. I know _you_." Vaan's voice is harsh with conviction. "And maybe I don't know what you're planning or what you're trying to do, but I miss you Balthier. I want you to know that."

"Vaan please, just leave me alone." Balthier says back quietly. He is stripped down, exposed and naked. And he hates it.

"I can't." Vaan says. His smile is wry. "You need me." One last squeeze and then Vaan releases his hand and moves away.

And as Vaan runs off into the city, Balthier feels something in his heart clench more and more the further the boy is away. Yes, he thinks, I probably do.

The thought is worrisome. Balthier looks to the sky with longing.

Vaan is in the middle of busiest part of the bazaar when Balthier finds him again. He is talking to the owner of a hunter's shop, clutching a Bubble Belt in his hand and waving his arms like crazy. The hunter shakes his head in disagreement, looking very unamused.

"Look. I'm _not_ on your side," Balthier says when he catches up.

Vaan starts when he hears Balthier's voice, and he turns so suddenly that he trips and falls against him.

Balthier reaches out to lend a steadying hand which, he thinks is retrospect, probably does nothing to help his case.

Vaan quickly backs away though, fast in a way that Balthier only just manages to catch his movement.

"Balthier! You followed me?"

"I just- I just wanted to make sure that we were very clear on that point." And even through the strong embarrassment Balthier feels, he can still see that Vaan is acting strangely.

"Yeah, yeah, but I think we should- we should talk somewhere…Look, we should really just go…" Vaan looks furtively around and his face is kind of panicked. He tugs at Balthier's hand, and turns to walk away.

"Give me back my wares, boy!" the hunter yells at them. Vaan tosses the Bubble Belt back without a care and then breaks into a run.

Balthier has enough time to wonder what the hell is going on, but by then it's too late.

"Crap!" Vaan's voice rings out. "Oww, oww! Don't hit me!"

Suddenly there's a blur of yellow, a shrieking yell of "Where the hell have you been?" followed by Vaan's nervous mumbling, and then Balthier finds himself face-to-face with five feet of angry girl.

"Balthier! What are you doing here? Do you- You! You shot my boyfriend!" Penelo yells at him, and Balthier feels like he is living in his own personal hell.

"Penelo!" Vaan squeaks, looking between her and Balthier with wide eyes, "I-I-uh…"

"My boyfriend!" Penelo repeats, hitting Balthier in the chest.

"Yes," Balthier says gravely. "I did." He finds it really difficult to look into her eyes so he settles for staring at the ground.

"What is _wrong_ with you?"

"Ah-"

"Do you even know how much time we spent trying to find you? We didn't even know if you were alive! You are so selfish! Stupid! Idiot!"

"Penelo!" Vaan says, running between her and Balthier and trying to pull them apart.

"I'm glad," she says, crying, "I'm so glad that you're okay."

Women are clearly all insane. Why is it that everyone who meets him again starts _crying_? This was just- embarrassing.

Balthier makes his hasty escape when Vaan bodily throws himself onto Penelo in an attempt to get her off Balthier's well-crushed body.

"Balthier!" he hears Vaan call after him, but by then he's long gone.

XVI.

Balthier and Fran go from empire to empire, stealing gems and adding them to their now impressive collection of shiny stones. Balthier catches Fran giving him strange looks and one time, even, a small and private smirk, but Balthier is far more concerned with the stupid airship that seems to trail behind them almost everywhere they go.

It drives Balthier crazy that he's being stalked. He wants to know how Vaan manages to somehow just _know_ where he's planning on going to next, how he's always one step ahead of the game, ahead of Balthier.

The boy's not even _smart_.

It's a conspiracy, he begins to think, because every time he looks over across the market and sees that impish smile, or glances over his shoulder to see sky-blue eyes, his Viera partner has mysteriously disappeared and it's just the two of them, alone.

It goes on for weeks until Nalbina.

"I've caught you again," says Vaan, and his smile is mischievous, gleeful, and resigned all at once. "But you're just going to run away like all those other times, aren't you? Idiot."

"Vaan." Balthier can think of nothing except that itchy feeling in his chest that makes him desperate to escape.

"You're kind of stupid. I'll just keep on chasing you, you know. You're never going to get away. Not from me. I'm the best sky-pirate there is now."

It is true. He can never escape from Vaan, not really. They all whisper his name on the docks of Balfonheim Port: words of a new pirate, the young boy who was a friend of Reddas, slither here and there among hopeful merchants and old pirates too eager for a new leader.

Vaan has made quite the name for himself.

And Penelo, of course, who is never too far off. Penelo, who fits perfectly into the role of young childhood friend-turned-lover. If Balthier is bitter, he knows he has no right to it and he tries his hardest to let it go.

"I can't stop running, Vaan," Balthier says, half of to himself and half to the boy.

"Okay," and Vaan's smile is enigmatic, "then I will just make you chase me instead."

Vaan walks off and Balthier can't believe this; that after finding Balthier and hunting him down, Vaan is going to just leave like that. It hurts, being the one walked away from, and Balthier feels a sting of regret when he realizes that's what he's been doing to Vaan for almost the past year.

The meaning behind Vaan's cryptic parting words does not hit Balthier until he returns to the Aeroport to find Fran crouched on the floor in the big empty space where his airship, conspicuously, is not.

Fran smirks as she hand him the note on the floor.

"Your airship kind of sucks," it says, "Come find me if you want this junk back."

Through the misty haze of emotions Balthier feels –_disbelief, anger, sheer incredulity_- he can't help but also note that Vaan has terrible penmanship.

XVII.

"Are you going to leave the Strahl in Vaan's hands?" Fran asks him after a week.

"I trust his hands are capable enough to take care of our ship for a little while. He has done it once before, already," Balthier answers. It's true enough.

"But you took it back then."

"And I will take it back again. Later."

"Or you could take it back now," Fran says slowly, enunciating every word with displeasure. "How are we to travel?"

"My dear, we will simply have to do this the old fashioned way. We can use public transportation. And we will walk."

Fran kind of glares at him because, yeah. He's kind of stupid.

XVIII.

"This way, I should think!" Balthier waves his hand to the west and the Fran quickly follows him through the harsh sands of the dessert.

The Eastersand feels like it never ends. The sun is relentless and the breeze blows hot, kicking up loose grains of sand that find their ways into places Balthier doesn't even want to think about.

They have been walking for three hours, and Balthier knows that the only thing keeping Fran from making disparaging remarks on the stupidity of the Hume race is their years of companionable partnership and the fact that she was hit by a silence spell that they could not afford to cure with a remedy.

This is foolish. Balthier accepts that. He ignores it with all of the dignity a sky pirate who got outwitted by a churl boy with a pretty face can muster.

It isn't very much.

Then a horde of angry cockatrice begins to chase after them through the twisting sands, squawking with vengeance and bloodthirst. One of them rips Balthier's shirtsleeve as he stumbles over uneven ground and he barely escapes with his cufflinks intact.

Ironically enough, it's the Bangaa that rescue them.

They find Balthier and Fran surrounded by seventeen unconscious cockatrice and bemusedly carry them on board their ship as Balthier slurs out insults to their mothers and passes out.

When he comes to, Ba'Gamman's beautiful face is inches away from his and snarling into Balthier's face. "I should kill you!"

"Let's not be so hasty," Balthier manages with a wince.

"Where are my stones?" Ba'Gamman voice sounds more like a thunderous growl.

"I have them-"

"Give them to me!"

"-but I don't have them with me right now. Clearly."

Fran, who Balthier notices is tied up behind him, makes a noise of derision that Balthier suspects is actually directed towards himself.

"Oh, do be quiet, Fran. The boys are talking now."

"I see no men here."

"Fran, please. Do you want me to show you? Because I def-"

"SHUT UP!" Ba'Gamman yells. He grabs Balthier by the neck and slams him into the wall, holding him there as Balthier's legs kick feebly into the air. "Tell me why I should not kill you now."

"You aren't going to kill me," Balthier rasps, "because I can get you those gems. But more importantly, I can get you what you really want. The Dawn Shard."

Ba'Gamman looks at Balthier sharply, and his eyes narrow in suspicion. "You know of the Shards?"

"Of course. I am my father's son, after all." It's a testament to his skill that he does not throw up as he says that. "I already know what it looks like. I am better able to find it than most everyone in world."

"Yet it has taken you so long already!" Ba'Gamman hisses.

"It's not so easy stealing a precious treasure like that, even for someone like me. I needed time to make plans. I was learning the Palace. Getting blueprints and listening for clues."

Ba'Gamman looks unconvinced, and Balthier reaches into pocket to draw out one of the gems he took from Rabanstre. "Look here," he says, "I have a small piece of Shard right in my hands."

Ba'Gamman grabs at it and inspects it closely. Balthier, out of the corner of his eyes, watches as Fran shifts her head away and her body, just slightly, begins to glow.

"Yes!" Ba'Gamman says, "I can feel its power!"

Oh, thank gods. Fran is amazing.

"I will give you another week," the Bangaa finally declares. His smile is smug and satisfied, and then his gaze shifts back to Fran once again.

Balthier can already sense the trouble about to come.

Ba'Gamman's eyes travels from the sharp points of Fran's stilettos to the very tips of her ears and then back down again while his face twists itself up in a large leer that is really rather disgusting. "After all," Ba'Gamman continues saying, "if you managed to catch such a fine breed again, I suppose you might be able to get me my stone."

His hand trails down Fran's cheek.

Fran gives Balthier a very pointed look.

"_Really_, after all that trouble?" She has got to be kidding.

Fran is distinctively unimpressed. _I did all the work_, she mouths.

"Oh, alright, fine!" he sighs, and kind of just gives up. He doesn't even know why he tried. "Everyone already knows I'm good and alive anyways. It's all pointless now. Go knock yourself out," he waves idly in the Bangaa's direction, "–or rather, _him_."

There's a sudden explosion of fast movement, and Fran's heel smashes violently into Ba'Gammans face as she does a vicious twist in the air and bursts out of the bonds.

"Good girl," Balthier smirks, and draws out his pocket knife.

XIX.

It takes them around two hours to properly hijack the Ba'Gamman's ship and by the time they finally kick all the Bangaa off, Balthier is exhausted.

"Gods," he says, "What stupid creatures."

"Yes," Fran says. "But I believe we have dealt with them sufficiently for now. Does this mean that you are 'alive' again?"

Balthier groans. "If I must. I suppose I wasn't really fooling anyone anyways."

"Vaan will be happy."

Balthier gives Fran a _look_.

"Fran," he says, "do shut up."

XX.

Balthier is exhilarated by this, by the freedom of being able to do something that he actually wants, for once. Something that doesn't involve him being a traitor or generally evil.

Fran catches onto his exuberant nature as if it were contagious and cannot hold back her own soft smiles. She does, however, roll her eyes quite a bit and act put-upon.

"I do not see why we cannot simply leave these jewels somewhere they can be found and conveniently returned," she asks. She is always reasonable, as if she completely lacked any imagination or fancy.

"Because, Fran," Balthier says as they once again sneak into the Dalmascan Palace treasury where the security is, as always, a joke, "That would be completely cowardly. If we are going to steal something like sky pirates, we might as well return them like sky pirates."

And maybe he feels a little bit guilty about taking place in a plot to overthrow the newly reinstated country of Dalmasca, even if the Bangaa couldn't form a decent conspiracy if their lives depended on it.

It also feels good, being back in here and doing this. He's making up for his mistakes. He's a better man now and, more importantly, he's his own man.

He doesn't know much about the future or destinies. But he thinks, starting here, he can make his own.

"Anyways Fran, they won't even notice we were ever here. Can't you just imagine the all those fantastic expressions when they see all of that treasure just sitting there as if-"

They turn the corner and run straight into Ashe. Again.

"-What the hell!"

"_Really_ now?" Ashe asks, one of her eyebrows arched in a sardonic expression. "Back again? Is this becoming something of a habit?"

"My Lady," Balthier exclaims in disbelief. "Just why are you down here so much?"

Ashe ignores him and instead turns to look at the pile of gems Balthier guiltily took out of his pocket just moments before.

"You could at least return all of it. Stingy," she adds.

"Hello again, Ashe," says Fran.

"Oh, Fran! It's been such a long time! You look good!"

Balthier only has a moment to think that this seems far too suspicious and coincidental to be an accidental –did Fran and Ashe always get on so well? And seriously, why was Ashe always lurking around the treasure room? Surely she had things to do, kingdoms to rule, and sky pirates to _not_ run into- until Ashe turns to him.

"And Balthier, you look good too, for someone who is supposed to be dead. Did you at least take care of the Bangaa? They're really annoying sometimes," she says.

And okay. That's just not fair.

"There are only so many times I can put her to sleep without feeling guilty," Fran says, looking askance at Balthier as they make their escape.

"Well, she should learn by now to take protective measures. We are teaching her valuable life lessons on self defense that may one day save her dear life."

"I do not see why we have to run away," she says, reading his mind. "They all know that we are alive already, and they will know too that we are on their side once the princess wakes up."

Balthier can't really explain it, except that he feels his chest tightly constrict when he thinks of the type of look Vaan will wear on his face when he hears of this.

XXI.

It is so stupid that he does not end this now. Ridiculous and childish that he does not want to stop this charade, even now when he knows that reality is stopping it for him and he does not stand a chance against the will of the Gods.

By the morning tomorrow the news of Balthier's apparent benevolence will have spread to Larsa and Basch. Eventually, in about a week (if Balthier is lucky), a rumor of his deeds will have reached the skies and a young blond-haired sky pirate will come down with the wrath of an avenging angel to strike him down.

But knowing Vaan, this will actually probably happen within two days, and Balthier feels so old and tired, and so young and confused.

The door to his bedroom opens, and his partner walks in with all of the majestic grace of the tall and powerful Viera.

"You should stop playing this game of cat and mouse. There is no point in struggling if you are already caught."

She tosses him a note and then turns to leave. The folded paper falls onto his bed, and Balthier is so completely caught off guard that he almost falls off from his perch by the window. He goes to read the note but he stops when he hears Fran's footsteps hesitate.

Fran is paused just before the door. Her body is turned away so that he cannot see her expression, and he can only guess what emotions her face hides.

"When you think you have found something very important," Fran says quietly, "you must rethink your old values. Decide which ones you merely want, and which ones you cannot live without."

Balthier knows that she is thinking of the Woods, but whether it is with regret or acceptance, he does not know. He hopes it is acceptance. Twice Fran has abandoned the Woods, and Balthier cannot imagine what she finds so worthwhile in the Hume world to sacrifice her old home.

Was it also freedom? Was it the curiosity to know what else was out there, what else the world had to offer? Or was it fear, a refusal to accept that this was all that there could be?

For as well as Fran knows Balthier so well, she remains mostly a mystery to him. The sound of her footsteps continue, and she closes his door with a subdued click.

"Fran," he says out loud to the empty air, "you are too attractive by far to play the part of the meddling and wise older mentor."

The note reads: _The boy is in Bhujerba_. _PS: Good luck.3 3_

Damn if that is not Al-Cid's handwriting. Of course, he _would_ be in on this too. The whole world seems to be conspiring against him.

XXII.

When Fran tells Balthier that she actually got the note from Larsa, Balthier kind of freaks out.

"It's so good to see you," Larsa says with a polite smile, "But if you do not mind my asking, should you not be running after our Vaan?"

"You asked Al-Cid." This isn't a question, the note in Balthier's hand is incriminating enough.

"Why, yes."

"Why did you ask Al-Cid? How do you even know about any of this? How many people _know_?" He's feeling slightly hysterical.

Larsa blinks in a completely innocent – and completely unconvincing- gesture. "I merely thought that Al-Cid seemed like someone knowledgeable about these things. Is there something that does not please you?"

Balthier really wants to hit him, but a glance Basch's stoic form standing rigidly behind Larsa in his dead brother's armor is a good enough repellant. "I need a ship to Bhujerba," he says instead.

Larsa does not question him, but Balthier thinks he sees the glimmer of an amused knowing smirk before it disappears.

"Give my regards to Penelo," Larsa calls out as Balthier leaves. "Tell her to come visit me every now and then. I do miss her dearly, and I except that she should find herself available quite soon."

Oh god, Balthier thinks. Suddenly, the vast conspiracy all seems to make sense.

XXIII.

Balthier knows he's caught; he is tethered with a strong and heavy rope and it constantly at pulls him to get closer and relieve the pressure.

It's not so bad, he thinks to himself when he sees a young boyish face with blue, blue eyes and a crooked happy smile.

Penelo is probably in the Strahl, wreaking havoc on their equipment and making a general mess of things as usual. But Balthier doesn't really care for his own ship now, as Fran is already hijacking Vaan's ride; the airship thrums with life as it lifts off the ground in a powerful thrust.

The wind kicks up loose strands of Vaan's longer hairs, brushing them around his face in time to the humming of the airship.

The image is ruined as Vaan, eyes comically wide and with his mouth gaping in disbelief, turns to stare at his airship.

"What the _fucking hell_! _Balthier_!"

"Ah, Vaan, you should keep a better eye on your things," Balthier offers idly. The smirk on his face is not in the least bit vindictive amusement.

"What the _fuck_. Balthier, you-! This is not-! Fuck!"

Such a dirty mouth. Such a beautiful and wonderful dirty mouth.

Vaan cuts off when Balthier quickly closes the distance between them and grabs his chin.

Up close, Balthier can see the reflections of the sky in those wide blue irises. Vaan's breath hitches; it's oddly loud even in the loud rumbling sounds of the engine and the fiercely blowing winds.

Now or never, Balthier thinks. And it's definitely not going to be never.

"You stole something from me," Balthier starts. "And because I'm a better sky pirate than you'll ever be, I feel obliged to take it back."

He kisses Vaan swiftly before the brat can ruin the moment by saying something stupid. Vaan is just like he remembered: salty with loss and pain from the fresh knowledge that life isn't fair, but sweet with his youth and love. The pressure in Balthier's chest disappears completely.

He gently slides his tongue in between Vaan's lips, committing to memory the sensation of this brash, headstrong boy who stole something the Balthier can't ever steal back, not really, and now he's not sure if he even wants to anymore.

Vaan trembles in his grip slightly. His shaky arms clutch at Balthier's shoulder as if he is terrified that Balthier will pull away.

Their tongues move together for a few precious moments. And then, gently, Balthier lets him go and steps back.

"But you know," Balthier whispers, "I'm all game for a trade if you are."

Vaan's ship is above them now. A hatch opens up and a rope is tossed down.

Balthier grabs onto it.

"You'll have to catch me if you want it back!" he yells down.

Vaan is frozen for a moment or two until his face breaks out in indignant fury.

"Ah- Wait! WAIT A SECOND! Balthier, you stupid old man! I don't want a trade! What the hell am I supposed to do with your old piece of junk?"

Vaan is so, so stupid. Balthier thinks the metaphor probably went over his head.

XXIV.

Once upon a time, there was a sky pirate who took from a princess a special ring that once belonged to her beloved.

'I'll give it back to you. As soon as I find something more valuable,' he said. *

And he does, when he finds Vaan.

But he also kind of wants his own ship back too. Out of humor, and perhaps a little bit of teasing vindictive pleasure, he leaves a note behind in the wake of Strahl's departure.

'Something more valuable: the Cache of Glabados. I await in Bervenia.'*

"Yeah, okay," Vaan says, "But how the hell am I supposed to get there without an _airship_?"

"_Boys_," Penelo says in exasperation, and leaves to go visit Larsa.

THE END.

The * indicates a direct quite from the game.


End file.
